Pune all set to host ‘Out and Loud’ international Queer film festival

From 1,600 films from across 103 countries, 120 films will be screened over the period of three days

A poster of the movie, Aanvesham, which will be screened at the international Queer film festival.(HT PHOTO)

Presence of the community crucial for awareness, said Shyam (Samuel) Konnur, founder and festival director of ‘Out and Loud’ Pune International Queer Film Festival. The second edition of the festival will begin at Farmaaish Lounge at Vimannagar on April 6, and will continue on April 7 and 8 at the Monalisa Kalagram, Koregaon Park.

The three-day film festival is organised by Mist, an eight-year-old NGO working for the welfare of the LGBTQ (stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) collective that began in Bengaluru in 2010, and later spread out to Pune and Hyderabad.

This film festival is unique because it serves as a platform for the LGBTQ community to come together, watch and discuss films, said Konnur.

“We want everyone to be a part of this film festival and feel related once they understand and connect to people,” said Konnur adding that the film festival caters to both the outside world and the LGBTQ community.

After the success of the first film festival with more than 500 people in attendance, this year the team is all set to accommodate more number of people and has hence fixed a bigger venue like the Monalisa Kalagram.

“We had almost 1,600 films from across 103 countries and also from countries, like Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Tunisia, out of which we have shortlisted 120 films which will be screened over the period of three days. We had decided on the theme of journey of an LGBT person, but then the films that poured in were so much about one’s experiences of coming out in the open or even understanding themselves that we decided to go with the flow,” said Shrishti Dixit, one of the organisers.

Lokesh Kumar from Chennai, director of My Son is Gay, said, “This is one of the important LGBT events happening in Pune, and I have been reading about the film festival. It is not an easy job to hold a festival and they are organising it really well. I am happy that my film is being screened here.”

This year, the film festival has tied up with Film Freeway to get international films and the team of five volunteers from various cities spent more than three months in screening and shortlisting the films for the festival. This year, there are several premieres that will be held during the film festival. Films like The Red Dress; Mum, I’m Back; (S)he, the Dua and My son is Gay, to name some. Most of these films are 5 minutes to 35 minutes long. Most of these films majorly talk about cross dressers, because for the world, only gays cross dress, but that is not true as it is something to do with an individual’s feelings, said the organiser.

Lyle Pearson, critic and a US citizen, said, “I heard about Out and Loud International Film Festival while in Bengaluru last year and thus was here for their very first film festival. Though it was their first film festival, the organisers had managed it pretty well. This year, I hope to see some good films on the community.”